HotelTonight Turns Last-Minute Booking Into Mobile Success

As the travel sector continues its recalibration journey post-pandemic, industry platforms are responding to a convergence of shifts by rethinking how they serve both customers and suppliers.

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The sector’s rebound is becoming defined by three themes: a resurgence of spontaneity-driven travel, a retreat from complexity, and the rise of dual-sided marketplaces.

“There’s a lot of complexity in travel … upsells, cancellation policies, add-ons. We just don’t believe in that,” Ron Sandel, GM at HotelTonight, told PYMNTS.

And within this emergent maturity phase, a new kind of consumer behavior is taking center stage: one where rigid itineraries and points-chasing loyalty is passe while immediacy, flexibility and value are the new priority.

“If you use our app, we like to say that in three taps and a swipe, you can have your hotel room booked,” Sandel said. “The biggest differentiator we have is understanding how to succeed in a mobile environment. And that’s with simplicity. We’re meeting our audience where they are.”

Spontaneity in Travel

Where pre-pandemic travelers often booked weeks or months in advance, today’s consumers are more comfortable making plans on the fly. This behavioral shift is driven in part by lingering uncertainty — economic, geopolitical and logistical — but also by changing attitudes toward work, leisure and risk.

At the same time, meeting the customer where they are is often easier said than done. Consumer sentiment is a moving target, particularly as inflation, global instability, and a recalibration of travel behaviors creates a landscape filled with unknowns.

“There are different pockets where there’s softness, global travel, New York suffered from some international challenges — but overall, it’s going great. We’re very excited at HotelTonight,” said Sandel, noting that for travel platforms and hotels, this has created both a challenge and an opportunity: to deliver relevant, value-driven inventory at the exact moment of need.

He pointed to HotelTonight’s recent partnership with the home services platform Thumbtack as a case study in intuitive business alignment.

“Some of the best ideas are born from listening to your customers,” Sandel said. “We constantly hear about people going through home renovations … and they need a place to stay. We said, ‘There’s really nobody better out there to work with than Thumbtack.’”

That natural synergy is helping to fuel growth for both platforms. Thumbtack users get reliable, last-minute accommodations, and HotelTonight expands its reach into the hybrid home-service and travel market — a sector where customer needs often spike suddenly and without warning.

Marketplaces Built on Mutual Benefit

The travel industry has long been burdened by complexity — multiscreen booking processes, unpredictable fees, opaque cancellation policies, and loyalty programs that require calculators to decode. In a sector still healing from pandemic-era burnout, users are gravitating toward platforms that offer clarity and efficiency.

Perhaps the most notable structural change in travel tech is the growing sophistication of dual-sided marketplaces. These platforms don’t just serve travelers — they also optimize for the needs of hotels and accommodation providers, many of whom struggle with uneven demand and unsold inventory.

“We solve a very specific need both for guests and for hotels,” said Sandel. “Hotels have unsold inventory. They give us that at exclusive discounts. And guests who are looking for last-minute stays — sometimes same day, sometimes a week out — find real value.”

Of course, the success of this model hinges on relentless execution.

“We have to earn our right every day to win our guests over,” Sandel stressed. “We will always have the best last-minute deals.”

Moreover, the loyalty paradigm is shifting. Points systems are increasingly seen as convoluted and hard to redeem. In their place, simplified credit-based models are gaining traction — offering immediate, dollar-value benefits that connect clearly to future use. The loyalty of the future, it seems, will be earned through clarity, not complexity.

“We just launched an expansion in March where you get 10% of every booking as credit toward a future Airbnb stay,” said Sandel. “For our business customers especially, this is really attractive because they can book on HotelTonight and it’ll help fund their next family trip.”

As leisure habits evolve and the boundary between business and personal travel continues to blur, one thing is certain: The days of rigid planning and hidden fees are fading. In their place, a simpler, more agile era of travel is emerging — defined by immediacy, trust and shared value.

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